2015 Starts Off Strong for Java 8

JDK 8 is starting 2015 with a surge in popularity in terms of blog posts and articles. This is coinciding with Java being automatically upgraded to JDK 8 this month. In this post, I list and briefly describe some of the numerous articles and posts on JDK 8 that have been published already in 2015.

JDK 8 Streams have been justifiably popular in recent posts. My first blog post of 2015 was Stream-Powered Collections Functionality in JDK 8 and it demonstrates performing some common functions against Java collections with greater ease and conciseness using Streams than was possible before Streams. The post Fail-fast validations using Java 8 streams looks at fluent fail-fast validation of state that was improved from its original writing based on feedback. The post Java 8: No more loops talks about streams providing concise alternatives to looping on collections. What is the difference between Collections and Streams in Java 8? and Java 8 Streams API as Friendly ForkJoinPool Facade were also posted this month.

Lambda expressions are obviously a big part of JDK 8. The post Java 8 Stream and Lambda Expressions – Parsing File Example demonstrates use of lambda expressions and streams to parse a log file. A quick overview of features new to JDK 8 is available in What Are the Most Important New Features in the Java 8 Release?. The post Java 8 Default Methods Explained in 5 minutes describes JDK 8's default methods.

Daniel Shaya warns of two potential caveats using JDK 8 functionality in the posts Java8 Sorting - Performance Pitfall and What's Stopping Me Using Java8 Lambdas - Try Debugging Them. Peter Ledbrook looks reexamines use of Groovy in JDK 8 in the post Groovy in light of Java 8.

We are only half-way through the first month of 2015 and JDK 8 continues to see increased adoption and, correspondingly, increased online coverage of its features. Most of the focus seems to be on the functional aspects that JDK 8 brings to Java.